The Le Games has generously given D20 Source permission to continue hosting this week’s PDF giveaway until the end of the month. You have until Tuesday to download these three expansions for D&D 3.5:

• Treasures of Malevolent Might
• Pimp My Paladin
• 17 Archer Feats

If you’re still hungry for D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder content, D20 Source has the full content of 17 Relics, originally published by The Le Games and written by Jonathan Drain.

The Le Games has generously given D20 Source permission to continue hosting this week’s PDF giveaway until the end of the month. You have until Tuesday to download these three expansions for D&D 3.5: Treasures of Malevolent Might Pimp My Paladin 17 Archer Feats If you’re still hungry for D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder content, D20 [...]

Several months ago I discussed player character races, largely in terms of choosing which races exist in your setting and how they might differ from the bog-standard versions described in the core books. Today’s article will revisit that topic from a slightly different angle—I’d like to take a closer look at creating your own races specifically for the campaign world your game is set in.

The first step is to visualize your race. Who are they? Do you picture a people based on the classical satyrs, or perhaps sentient humanoid fungus-folk? Perhaps an insectoid race akin to beetles tickles your imagination, or a mystical fox-people who practice ancient magics, potent martial arts, and earthy wisdom? Or are they physically similar to another race, enough to be able to disguise themselves and walk among them undetected? You should have a clear idea of what they look like, since you will probably need to convey this information to your players in order for them to visualize this race, especially if you intend for it to be playable.

The next step is to decide where they call home. Often the answer to this is suggested by the physical features of the race—hawk-men might roost in the high places of the world, insect-people might dwell in underground holes, and satyrs might intermingle freely in the elven lands. If possible, make their homes as distinctive as possible, especially if they are near other similar races. A halfling and a beetle-man may each live in homes dug out from the hillside, but where a halfling’s hole is finished and furnished with the finest of frippery, a beetle-man may be more comfortable with rough dirt walls and simple furniture. This can help in describing the character of the typical member of the race, as well.

Making an interesting culture is key when you are trying to design a player character race. If your players have no interest in using the race, much of your work is lost—though not all, especially if they play a key role in your campaign world. Still, it can be disheartening to work on designing an option for your players to use only to have it ignored or declined. If you are really eager to have someone play a member of a custom race, it can be a good idea to collaborate with the prospective player on the culture of the people, both to expand it in ways you might not have imagined on your own and to ensure that it’s something they’re interested in using.

One barrier that may exist that could prevent your players from choosing a custom race is that they see them as being similar but inferior to an existing player character option. If you create a race inspired by classical satyrs in appearance, who dwell in the woodlands and excel at archery, then your players may well wonder what distinguishes them from elves, and rightly so. Worse, unless you have put a fair amount of effort into making them both mechanically distinct from elves and comparable in the amount of feat support you offer, then chances are your players will choose the option that gives them a wider variety of choices for feats. If you’re not particularly mechanically inclined, you might even consider running your campaign setting without traditional elves entirely, to further the example—simply let your players know that in your campaign world you are “reskinning” elves to represent the custom race. This may not be appropriate for all campaigns or races, but it may be the appropriate solution for some.

One reason that it may not work is if your campaign specifically calls for there to be interaction between your custom race and the existing races—perhaps rather than mingling freely with the elves, the satyr people have a long term rivalry with them, be it over space, resources, ideologies, or whatever other reasons. How your new race interacts and fits in with the other races that exist in your setting is another very important element to consider, both for players interested in using the race and for you as the DM to use in creating story hooks and ensuring that they are fully integrated into your campaign world. If you neglect to consider how and where the new race fits into the world and its other peoples, they may feel tacked-on.

As mentioned above, mechanical support is important for any player character race. The type and level of support you give to your custom races is entirely up to you, though it can also depend on the needs of your players. If a concept for a race is interesting or unique enough, there are some players who will happily choose it without regards to mechanical optimization, since there may be a sufficient number of feats available to support the concept they have in mind without needing racial options to work. Other players may be willing to collaborate on feat support—perhaps suggesting possible feats that they would like for their character, which you as DM might accept or alter as needed to maintain balance. You might decide to create a number of feats yourself, or you might cherry-pick racial feats from other races you may not be using in your game that fit the theme of the race you are creating.

Ultimately the most important thing about creating your own race is that it should be interesting and fun and add something to your campaign world. Everything else is of secondary concern—if your players don’t care about the fact that there are no feats, then don’t sweat the lack thereof. If your players don’t want to play a new race, you don’t have to abandon the idea; they may still be valuable for establishing a unique element of your setting or as an important part of the story in your campaign. A new or unusual race can go a long way to making your campaign world feel unique, and can be a great tool for involving players in developing aspects of the setting. Remember, though, that to completely abandon the familiar races might create a barrier for some players, who may have particular expectations about their options—replacing all of the races in your game with new ones you’ve designed may make it difficult for them to choose in some cases. In others, it could be an exciting way to present a truly fantastic setting. As always you should communicate with your players and decide what is most fun for the group as a whole.

As many of you know, I've a vested interest in Slumbering Tsar, Greg Vaughan's half-million word mega-adventure on the rise of Orcus. After all, it was an interview on this very blog that helped re-invigorate interest in this magnum opus. Well, I'm happy to say it's finally here -- happy even if Vaughan's adventures have slain more of my characters than any other authors'. For real. It's also no longer news that Necromancer games has risen from the grave as Frog God Games -- insert big cheer! -- or that they're publishing Slumbering Tsar. Finally, my fellow RPGAggression reviewer, Endzeitgeist, has a full and detailed review of Tsar planned. He's less biased than me and more thorough, so I'm going to leave that review to him. Instead, let's take a moment to talk about how Frog God circumvented the challenge of publishing a 500,000 word adventure -- a challenge that daunted even the publishing might of Paizo and the old Necromancer Games combined.

The short answer is: subscription model + installments. Frog God offers the Slumbering Tsar saga in 14 installments.  You can buy installments for a few dollars each PDF, or you can subscribe to the whole thing and receive a hard cover  at the end of your subscription - a deeply discounted hardcover. Actually, Frog God offers us at least three different options: Premium (Subscription + discounted Hardcover), PDF only subscription, and PDFs + Hardcover, no Subscription.

It's a great little publishing model, in my opinion, filled with options. The most attractive option (Premium) offers the publisher the security and benefits of pre-orders without denying the customer (us!) an immediate product for our hard earned dollars.

I'm off to order now. I am so going to make Greg Vaughan sign my hardcover at least once for every character of mine his adventures have killed.

I hope his book is long enough.

Look for a full review of Slumbering Tsar at RPG Aggression from master-reviewer Endzeitgeist!

Previous discussions in this column have explored collaborating with your players on world-building efforts, mostly through character backgrounds and attentiveness to cues in their roleplaying. Not every player wants the same experience out of an RPG, though, which can lead to problems if the player character questionnaire is the only venue by which you obviously invite player collaboration in the world building process. Perhaps one of your players doesn’t really feel all that comfortable in the spotlight, preferring to take a supporting role; the questionnaire as a tool for drawing out that player’s collaboration can fall short, then, especially if it contains mostly questions about the character’s specific background. But what if that player has other areas in which they can assist in world-building?

This idea is one that may seem contrary to the instincts of player and DM alike. After all, traditionally the DM is viewed as the one who provides the world for the players to explore. However, while you may meet some initial resistance or reluctance on the part of your players to the idea of taking part in the world design process, once they begin to participate in earnest chances are they will have a better time in game as well. Use their imagination to help feed your own, and the possibilities expand exponentially.

Different players have different interests, skills, and needs, and identifying which of these you can make use of in designing or expanding your campaign world can be key. For example, a cartographically inclined player may be able to make a much better map of your world than you yourself can manage, and may add in some interesting sites or features that beg to be used in adventures. Perhaps he sketches in a city on stilts in the center of a lake where you hadn’t imagined one; deciding what made the citizens go to such effort and thinking up some stories that you might be able to tell there can give you fuel to work with for a plot or a base of operations, and will make the player feel excited to see his idea made real in the game world.

Other, similar ways exist to draw out player creativity to expand your game world for all manner of different skills or interests. A player interested in heraldry might be coaxed into designing and blazoning crests for the noble families represented in your game, or even for the players. There may be interesting stories to work out behind each of the elements of the crests, which you can work with the player to determine and flesh out. A player with a lyrical bent might be able to write songs or poems that flesh out the setting—from a common drinking song to a ballad of one of the heroes of old, or a song about the characters themselves and their adventures.

Even if the player is less creative or less comfortable in creating art or poems, ask them for input on the world. Maybe they have certain kinds of things they’d like to see, or certain themes they would like for the campaign to explore. If possible you should work to accommodate such things—barring ideas that wildly conflict with the game as the rest of the group envisions it, that is. If everyone else is dead set on a high fantasy game focusing heavily on courtly intrigue, having a futuristic space-warrior with a laser gun and a tank and a shoot first ask questions later attitude is probably not going to mesh, though creative or determined groups may well find a way to make it work.

The ultimate purpose of involving the players in worldbuilding is of course to make them feel as invested in the setting as possible. When their characters hear stories around the campfire based on their adventures, it’s great, but not every story can be about them—but if the story is one that the players created, then they get a similar sense of ownership. An involved group is a happy group, and a campaign with everyone working together to build the world can act as glue for otherwise disparate groups. Imagine what it can do for your group!

Previous discussions in this column have explored collaborating with your players on world-building efforts, mostly through character backgrounds and attentiveness to cues in their roleplaying. Not every player wants the same experience out of an RPG, though, which can lead to problems if the player character questionnaire is the only venue by which you obviously [...]

If you’re following the RSS feed, you may have missed Monday and Tuesday’s free D&D PDF giveways to celebrate the 36th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons and the 10th anniversary of D&D third edition. Today D20 Sources the last of three PDFs graciously donated from The Le Games‘s line of third edition player enhancement books. [...]

In my last installment of "Start a campaign for free", I have marveled at the question whether it would be possible to start a new campaign without paying a single buck and introduced you to The Lonely Coast by Raging Swan Press as a free default mini-setting. Now, after you had enough time to digest the cozy piece of land, I'll venture on to look for a free adventure to spring upon your players. My requirements for the adventure were as follows:

- It has to be easily adaptable to a new setting/be generic enough. Thus no campaign-setting specific adventures.

- It has to be long enough to cover multiple sessions of gaming.

- It has to be free. (D'uh.)

- It has to fit in the mini-setting established in the previous installment, both in atmosphere, technology and the magic-level. 

That seem to be quite harsh criteria, however, I was able to unearth one adventure that fit them all:

Horror at Dagger Rock by Sagaworks Studios.

For those of you unfamiliar with my review of the adventure, I'll repost it here:

This pdf is 74 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page back cover, 1 page OGL, 1 page credits that leaves 70 pages of chock-full with adventure.

The module features 6 adventure hooks and several maps for almost every location in the adventure:
5 small maps of houses in the adventure, 1 player's map of the town Relford without any annoying letters or revealed secrets. Very nice. Furthermore, we also get 2 pages of DM-maps.

The adventure per se, a dark tale about a cult with a nod towards Lovecraft county, is highly detailed and can be described as a sandbox-style free-form investigation followed by a hardcore dungeon crawl that is very atmospheric and expects players to use both their brain and their common sense to defeat the obstacles they'll face.

The investigation works fine, due to the excruciating attention to detail that has been given to the NPCs - even wives and children have their own names, every entry features DCs to glean information in addition to the massive 1 page rumor table.

The adventure also features MASSIVE handouts for players (at least for such an "indy" production): A 4 page journal, 2 One-page letters, 1 One-page missive and 1 One-page crude map. This should be standard.

We also get 2 new monsters, one of which is a template.

The quality of the prose is high and the atmosphere evoked makes the adventure a nice read.
The writing is very concise and offers the DM the tools to pace the investigation and modify the difficulty/pace. Make no mistake: This adventure cannot be run spontaneously and should be carefully read and prepared, it's too densely packed with information and fluff to be glanced over.

My only criticism is the lack of interior art, which would cost one Rudi.

Conclusion:
As mentioned above, I'd normally detract one Rudi due to the lack of interior art. However, the adventure is tightly and intelligently written and: It's for free! It's a large, high-quality adventure and it's for free. If you are somewhat into old-school gaming or like horror, check it out. My final verdict, taking into consideration that this adventure is free,  would the be 5 Rudii. 

All right. Now we have a mini-setting, a first level adventure and what do we still need? Bingo! Additional goodies! Next time at "Start a campaign for free" I'll look for some free supplemental material. I'll also soon post some reviews of other stuff, so stay tuned! 

Thank you for your patience and good gaming to you and yours,

Endzeitgeist out.

D20 Source Dungeons & Dragons Blog has teamed up with The Le Games to give away a D&D PDF every day until Wednesday to celebrate the 36th anniversary of D&D. Yesterday’s offer was a free PDF copy of Treasures of Malevolent Might, a collection of 36 magic items including several artifacts. Today, you can download [...]

Dungeons & Dragons is 36 years old today, and to celebrate, D20 Source has teamed up with publisher The Le Games to give presents to every reader. Gen Con VII took place in 1974 from August 23-25. It was at this convention that TSR launched the original Dungeons & Dragons, in a print run of [...]

Dungeons & Dragons is 36 years old today, and to celebrate, D20 Source has teamed up with publisher The Le Games to give presents to every reader. Gen Con VII took place in 1974 from August 23-25. It was at this convention that TSR launched the original Dungeons & Dragons, in a print run of [...]

If you’re following the RSS feed, you may have missed Monday and Tuesday’s free D&D PDF giveways to celebrate the 36th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons and the 10th anniversary of D&D third edition. Today D20 Sources the last of three PDFs graciously donated from The Le Games‘s line of third edition player enhancement books.

Today, you can download 17 Archer Feats. Save it out while the download is still available.

If you missed the previous two offers, the previous PDFs are still available for the time being: Monday’s expansive Treasures of Malevolent Magic and the comically named (but seriously useful) Pimp My Paladin.

D20 Source Dungeons & Dragons Blog has teamed up with The Le Games to give away a D&D PDF every day until Wednesday to celebrate the 36th anniversary of D&D.

Yesterday’s offer was a free PDF copy of Treasures of Malevolent Might, a collection of 36 magic items including several artifacts.

Today, you can download Pimp My Paladin, a tongue-in-cheek titled collection of serious ways to beef up your divine warrior for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. Save now while the file is still available!

Dungeons & Dragons is 36 years old today, and to celebrate, D20 Source has teamed up with publisher The Le Games to give presents to every reader.

Gen Con VII took place in 1974 from August 23-25. It was at this convention that TSR launched the original Dungeons & Dragons, in a print run of only 1,000 copies. This August also marks the tenth anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons third edition Player’s Handbook, estimated to have sold several hundred thousand copies per year.

To celebrate, we’re giving away a selection of The Le Games’ player-oriented third edition PDFs, one every day for the next three days.

Today’s release is Treasures of Malevolent Magic, a collection of 35 magic items for Dungeons & Dragons third edition. Right-click and Save As to download your copy – the offer won’t stay up for long.

Powerful magical items are a staple of myths, genre fiction and roleplaying games alike. Most D&D players will have heard at least of the Hand and Eye (or Head) of Vecna, for example, and who hasn’t heard of Excalibur or the One Ring? As powerful as these items are, it’s really the stories of where they came from and how they were used that captures the imagination. If your campaign world has similar magic items of incredible power, quite aside from the mechanical representation of each item it is essential to consider the story behind it as well.

Most magical items aren’t legendary on their own—they have well known owners as part of their story. Excalibur is almost always mentioned in the same breath as King Arthur, for example, and the One Ring is associated with Frodo, Sauron and Gollum—but also sometimes known as Isildur’s Bane after another ill-fated owner. Is there one user in the history of your artifact who is most famous for its ownership, or has it been passed through many hands? What became of the owner, and what role did the item in question play in that fate?

Another angle to consider is whether there are any locations or events that are tied to the item. Locations don’t necessarily need to be specific named places—Excalibur, for example, was granted to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake (and returned to the lake in some versions of the tale) but which lake in particular is anyone’s guess, as there are a number of lakes which fit the bill. This confusion of locations can be beneficial in your campaign setting, if you choose to make tracking down the item in question a major quest, especially if other treasure seekers are also after the same item.

Events can be well known, such as the battle in which Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, or more vague, such as exactly when and where Smeagol and his friend Deagol later came upon it. Either way, these stories can provide both background on the item of power and potential hints on where it is to be found. Are there any locations or events that your artifact is associated with? Are the locations specific (like Mount Doom) or vague (like the Lake in Arthurian lore)? What is the nature of the association?

Some items are most often referred to in combination with other items. Excalibur and the Holy Grail, for example, have a certain amount of connection thanks to each having close association with King Arthur. Other storied items of legendary power—the Hand and Eye of Vecna, for example—are much more directly associated. Are there any other artifacts connected to the item you’re creating? What is the connection? How close an association is it? Are the items tied together as complementary, or are they equal and opposite in nature—opposed weapons of light and darkness, for example?

The question of what the item does is of course definitely a contributing factor to its fame and story. Some items, such as Excalibur, are obvious in their use from their form alone and the tales surrounding them are based on that clear use. Other items are of less immediately apparent purpose—The Black Cauldron’s appearance would not necessarily indicate to an observer its power to raise the dead as servants to its owner, even if it would be immediately evident that it was a powerful item. The shape and form of the artifact can be an interesting way to make them more interesting—magic swords are obvious and popular, but trying something more unique may have a more memorable result.

Giving your artifacts strong backgrounds and stories can help them stand out in your player’s minds, as well as provide further links to your world’s history and geography. It’s even possible to provide this kind of detail for more mundane magical gear—though the same level of depth is not necessary, especially if your game features frequent acquisition and replacement of lesser magical toys. In any case it certainly does a great deal to shift magic from being a collection of numbers towards being something special in your world, which is always a good thing.

Powerful magical items are a staple of myths, genre fiction and roleplaying games alike. Most D&D players will have heard at least of the Hand and Eye (or Head) of Vecna, for example, and who hasn’t heard of Excalibur or the One Ring? As powerful as these items are, it’s really the stories of where [...]

Powerful magical items are a staple of myths, genre fiction and roleplaying games alike. Most D&D players will have heard at least of the Hand and Eye (or Head) of Vecna, for example, and who hasn’t heard of Excalibur or the One Ring? As powerful as these items are, it’s really the stories of where [...]

Hello everybody! With the recent ennies, a certain guide has garnered some publicity and that's why yours truly will grace the pdf with his longest review yet. I really hope that you enjoy reading it and that it is helpful with deciding whether to check the guide out or not. The short answer is: Check it out. :)

The (very) long answer follows:

The Great City Player’s Guide

The pdf is 111 pages long. 1 page Front cover, 1 page blank (inside the front cover), 1 page credits, 1 page table of contents,1 page OGL, 1 page advertisement and 1 page back cover. There are extensive bookmarks and the editing is mostly good, but there still are some minor glitches and one PrC had been hit hard by a spell-level typo.

That leaves us with 104 pages of content, starting off with 1 page Foreword by Tim Hitchcock about what to expect.

 

Chapter 1:Races is 8 pages long:  We get 2 human ethnicities, Azindralean and Kortezians (both with new racial traits, 1 for the Azindraleans and 6 for the clans of the Kortezians) and the Gur, goblin-half-bloods with three different sets of abilities: One for Half-Bugbear, one for Half-Hobgoblin and one for Goblin-blooded Gur. We also get the Half-Giant race updated to PFRPG, complete with fluff and either psionics or a non-psionic variant. Nice. The final new race are the Roachkin. Who thinks of a cheesy cockroach-race will be either relieved or disappointed: Roachkin are actually degenerate humans that have evolved into something similar, yet slightly different. After that each of the core races gets some paragraphs on how and where they fit into the Great City, as well as one new racial trait per core race.

None of the races of the chapter and none of the racial traits seemed to be too powerful or unbalanced. I enjoyed the flavor-text for the core-races and think that both the Roachkin and the Half-Giants are well-implemented. I like psionics, so I’m glad that they get a bit of love. As a reviewer, I’m glad for all the people disliking psionics that there is a non-psionic alternative. Personally, I was abit disappointed that the new races didn’t get a fluff-introduction on how they fit in the Great City, as I was intrigued by both the Half-Giants and the Roachkin (I don’t like the name, though) and thought that the Gur could have used something like that. As written, I wouldn’t want to play a Gur, but that’s just me.

Moving on to new classes (26 pages):

-Cultkiller (Fighter-type, 2+Int skills, d10, 2 good saves) is an interesting class that does exactly what the name suggests it will: Annihilate cults and cultists, breaking their conviction, routing them out, etc. The abilities are a nice blend of some social skills, tracking, investigation and a tiny sprinkling of supernatural abilities. Somehow, the class reminded me of Robert E. Howards Solomon Kane as a character concept.  The cultkiller is neatly balanced and not over-the-top and could be used in d20 settings that happen on our earth without looking out of place. Nothing to complain. Nice work!

-Ghostblade (Fighter-type, 4+Int skills, d10, 1 good save) is another new fighter type. This one is centered on the idea of an ancestral blade that can be upgraded via the abilities of other magical items and bound ancestral specters he can use for rather potentially creepy supernatural abilities. I really liked the concept of the class and have but one gripe with it: One of the Spirit powers obtainable for the Ghostblade, Read Past, has the potential to break many investigations: On a successful strike, he learns the past, secrets etc. of persons when they fail a Will save. You can, of course disallow this one ability, as I plan to do. Or fudge the die-roll. Or build your investigations around this feature. However, I wanted to warn that this one ability has the potential to be abused. Players should ask their DM about this one.

-Guttermage (Bard-type, 6+Int skills, d8, 2 good saves) is a medium caster, has access to a limited spell-list up to 6th level spells and gets the ability to fling debris in a lethal way at his opponents, with the ability getting better at higher levels. Mechanically, it’s a ranged touch attack that begins with 1d6 and does up to 10d6 slashing, bludgeoning and piercing damage on 19th level. It can be used at will, but needs debris for the attack to be possible. He also gets so-called Jinxs, abilities that help making him the stereotypical beggar/crazy-man with supernatural abilities like calling vermin, scrying windows, fooling enemies, creating hidden stashes and the like. I found all of the possible jinxs to choose from interesting and they WILL see some use in my games. We also get the complete Guttermage spell-list. There is one downside to the Guttermage, though: He casts with CHA. While I realize that spontaneous casters usually cast with CHA, in the case of the Guttermage, I just don’t like that decision. CHA includes both personality and looks and I’ll change that to INT as his casting attribute.

-Neopagan (Caster-type, 4+Int skills, d8, 2 good saves) is essentially an anti-caster divine spell caster, with WIS as the central attribute, spontaneous casting and a spell point system, not unlike that used by psionics. However, she can ready an action to counter enemy spells and add the level of the countered spell to her essence points (the points she uses to cast), but only up to her maximum essence points. The class also gets its own, rather limited, but interesting spell-list. It is clear that the Neopagan is designed to be a nemesis to caster and that’s where I have my problem with the class: It hits one of my personal pet peeves. Unlimited counterspells will never, ever find a way into any of my games. One could argue that the limited spell-list is big enough an offset to negate the benefit of the unlimited counterspells and I can see the class working for other people. It doesn’ t work for me, though.

-Urbanist (Gadget-type, 4+Int skills, d8, 1 good save) is a tinkerer/gadget-type class. Using a fuel he can build himself (without cost), he powers his tools. He can craft and learns to substitute a select number of spells for purposes of crafting. He also gets an Automaton, an improving, mechanical familiar creature that is somewhat customizable. The alchemical fuel can also be used to make weapons magic or give them magic qualities for a select amount of time. He also has an injector, enabling him to consume potions faster than usual and even combine them at higher levels. His most distinguishing feature are his trinkets & gadgets, though. They are powered by his limited amount of alchemical fuel and are plain AWESOME. Seriously, I’ve been looking for a class like this for quite some time and the Urbanist actually does work (in contrast to any gadgeteer-class I’ve seen so far), does not require too much crafting-math and is just plain cool. There is something to nitpick here, too, though: I want more gadgets and trinkets! Especially for the high-level inventions, we don’t get too much variety. I’d instantly buy more pdfs to support the Urbanist. My favorite class of the bunch.

Then, we get 2 pages of new feats. Some help the Urbanist, some are more general. They are ok, not overpowered and I didn’t consider any of them flawed. I didn’t consider any of them brilliant either, though.

The next chapter is called Professions and is three pages long. And something that should have been done long ago: It contains rudimentary rules for PCs who also have PC-appropriate professions in addition to their adventuring careers. Be it Zealot, Sherriff or bounty hunter. The section also includes a new NPC class that my PCs will need sooner or later: The Barrister. Very nice chapter, and extremely concisely presented.

After that, we get 17 pages of Prestige Classes:

-Crossroad Guardian (d8, 4+Int skills, 1 medium save, 5 levels): Luck-based gang-class that gets abilities from the classes he came from, i.e. spells, sneak attack or combat feats. It also has a sidebar offering advice on roleplaying luck. It’s an ok class and possibly very fun to play.

-Insurrectionist (d10, 4+Int skills, 1 medium save, 10 levels): The insurrectionist has buff-abilities for his allies, can find hide-outs and is a great story-driven class if you want to start a revolution/insurrection. He also makes a great leader. That being said, the class is a niche class and not for every campaign, but if your campaign goes that direction, the insurrectionist makes an awesome leader and prime candidate for the new order after the rebellion. Recommend for any PCs who go in that direction.

-Moon Warrior (d10, 4+Int skills, 2 good saves, 10 levels): The first thing I saw was that the class can cast spells of 2nd til 6th level and figured, that would be a typo. The text explains that the spells are drawn from the moon domain. OK. However, the text says, the Moon Warrior may learn new spells and lists the requirements to cast them. There are no first level spell-slots in the class as presented.  There seems to be something wrong here:  Either the 1st level spell list is just not here and the wording of the spellcasting ability is kind of ambiguous, or the class should have the standard spell array from first level till fifth of casting warrior classes. In conclusion: A holy warrior class with moon abilities and focus on spiked chains and not becoming a lycanthrope whose spell-casting paragraphs are confusing.

-Numismatist (d8, 6+Int skills, 2 medium saves, 5 levels): A mage/bard-class that focuses on commerce, fast divination by coin-toss, swift thefts, coin-traps and the flow of money, makes for an interesting and innovative idea. I like the class.

-Rooftop Runner (d8, 8+Int skills, 1 medium save, 10 levels): The class is a cat-burglar class that gets all the hide and movement benefits you might expect, mage hands, invisibility, squeezing through tight spots and on higher levels even helps other character with infiltrating and granting severe skill-bonuses to the allies. A nice specialist class for rogues who are drawn to a rather glamorous trope of their occupation.

-Sewer Runner (d8, 6+Int skills, 2 medium saves, 10 levels): The Sewer Runner is a hardy expert of surviving in the filthy environment of the sewers, including resistances against negative conditions, wall-skittering, dire rat companions and the like. It’s an ok underdweller class.

-Shadow Mage of the Gray Consortium (d6, 2+Int skills,1 medium save, 7 levels): The SMotGC is a shadow mage that focuses on shadow, light and darkness-spells, shadow concealment, better shadow metamagic and the like. While not a bad class per se, I liked the Shadow Mage incarnation from Tome of Magic (I expanded the number of mysteries known and tweaked the class a lot) and some Shar-worshipping 3.5.-PrCs better. The abilities of this class almost feel balnd in comparison to the new base-classes and some other PrCs.

After this chapter, one central question remains for me: Will we get PrCs for the NEW races and especially the new base classes in this book? I would have preferred PrCs for the new base classes to some of the generic PrCs here. (Shadow Mage & Moon Warrior, I’m looking at you – Why is the Moon Warrior not a Neopagan-PrC? I think that would have worked nicely…)

The next chapter on Organizations is 8 pages long and introduces more than 20 (22 to be precise) new organization-based traits for several organizations in the Great City and also introduces two new organizations, The Auctioneers (including 2 new traits and a side bar with rules for auctions) and The Marad, the organization behind the new Rooftop Runner PrC, complete with 3 new traits. I like this chapter, as every organization sparked at least one concept for a new character concept and/or an adventure.

Tongs is 7 pages long and all about small conspiracies and parties. The idea is, that Tongs provide characters with simple one-on-one mission for instances, when he whole group can’t meet and provide benefits in exchange. An awesome idea! The execution is also great:  We get 5 Tongs, each with 10 sample hooks for missions and a special ability granted for completing a set amount of missions. Great story-telling devices and cool fluff. I would have loved to see more of the tongs, perhaps we’ll get some complete missions in a future installment of the Great City line? Perhaps in small, cheap pdfs?

Then we get the 4 pages of new Equipment:  From trick bolts and arrows to hidden compartments, stilettos and the like and also offers advice on Gaslight influences in fantasy like in the Great City. 4 very concise pages that will see use in my games.

The chapter on Magic items is 5 pages long consists of 17 new magic items, 1 new minor artifact as is all killer, no filler. All of the items have a distinct flair and flavor. I’m frankly too lazy to do the math for every item, but I didn’t notice any obvious blunders.

The section on Property is 4 pages long and once again, presents very concise rules for the cost of property and the upkeep costs in regions of The Great City. There is also a table on mishaps that can happen to your property and even some quick rules to avoid taxes are provided – A fun read, as I think adventurers too often get around in-game economics.

Then, we get a short 5 page-treatise on Astrology and Religion, portraying the months and star signs of the great city, another new trait, 5 deities and 3 new domains. Ok, I guess and I liked the domains. They were not as generic as I half expected them to be, but still, this chapter is winning no innovation price. The constellations are nice, though, and I think, I’ll use them.

The inevitable chapter containing New Spells begins with 3 pages of lists of the new spells, followed by 7 pages of spells for a total of 10 pages. I have to admit that I did not expect too much. I was wrong: The spells contained herein are all intelligent, cool and distinctively urban in nature and will be useful and satisfying for anyone running a campaign in an urban setting. For anyone else, too, I guess. Spells like Flicker, which grants a temporal respite every day/hour/year/etc. from a negative condition are adventure hook- and tactics-gold. Thus, the regular part of the Great City’s Player’s Guide closes with a bang.

Finally, we also get a short 2-page Appendix of conversion advice to convert the file from PFRPG to D&D 3.5. A nice bonus for anyone who has not yet switched to PFRPG.

Conclusion:

This is a big pdf chock-full of information and you’ll definitely find some useful bits and pieces within these pages, even if you’re not using The Great City –there are just so many good ideas herein that it’s actually a little overwhelming. I like the new base classes, but was a bit disappointed by the PrCs – while the base classes are all somewhat iconic, the PrCs mostly fell short of that quality. There are some exceptions, but they just didn’t grip me as much (Insurrectionist, Sewer Runner and Numismatist being the exceptions to this rule).  The new races were mostly “meh” for me. Although I’m a sucker for psionic races, I cannot help but only feel a certain pang of annoyance when reading yet another half-breed race (RP’s Wyrd being the exception to the rule) and the Gur (three-in-one) and Half-Giant unfortunately fit that bill. The space they took up could have been used to better flesh out the Roachlings, but that is just my opinion. The best parts for me are definitely the small chapters on property, professions, organizations, tongs, equipment (mundane and magical) and the spells.

The B/w artwork is nice and the sheer amount of information makes this book a worthwhile buy for any DM planning to run a campaign in an urban environment. Players wishing to add an edge to their character are also more or less guaranteed to enjoy this book, although Munchkins and hardcore Powergamers might be disappointed: Nothing really too unbalancing within these pages for you, sorry. There are some blemishes, though: Some of the information (e.g. the tongs or sidebar on the Shadow Mages) should have rather been put in a GM’s Guide and I frankly think that fewer PrCs and more equipment, gadgets for the Urbanist and items for the new base classes would have been great.

Plus: There are unfortunately some editing glitches that make some of the parts a bit harder to understand than they should be. Although some of the content is top-notch and very much appeals to my sensibilities, my final verdict is 4 stars for what it is as an urban sourcebook: Great bits and pieces, but has some flaws, to be precise some of the PrCs and races and the editing glitches. Add half a star if you’re playing in the Great City. 

On the Rudii-scale, I'll give it 4.5 Rudii! 

Ok. Still reading? I applaud your curiosity and patience, ladies and gentlemen and thank you for your precious time. Until next time I remain your faithful servant,

Endzeitgeist out.

 

Mankind has a well-documented fascination with the heavens. The Sun, the moon, the planets and the stars, as well as other celestial objects like comets and events like eclipses, have all been a field of great interest. They have been used in all manner of divinations and believed to be able to foretell the future, [...]

Mankind has a well-documented fascination with the heavens. The Sun, the moon, the planets and the stars, as well as other celestial objects like comets and events like eclipses, have all been a field of great interest. They have been used in all manner of divinations and believed to be able to foretell the future, for weal or woe. In your campaign world, celestial bodies can hold in truth all the fabled knowledge of yore, but there’s no reason to feel obligated to leave it at that.

There are a wide variety of possibilities for any of the features of the sky in a fantasy world. Let’s look at a few…

The Sun is often taken for granted, but it plays a huge role in the environment of your world. What if the sun is weak, or distant, and at best provides a twilight level of illumination for the world—what changes would that make to farming, wildlife, and society? What if two or more suns burn in the sky, and night is unknown—and what if suddenly one of the suns vanishes? Your world could traverse an odd path around its sun, one that leads to abnormally long seasons lasting years or even decades, or perhaps your campaign world is not heliocentric at all, but rather features the sun and all the other heavenly bodies rotating around the world. Playing around with the basic expectations of night and day can lead to a very distinct feel to your world.

The moon—or moons as the case may be—can affect a lot as well. In Dragonlance, for example, the phases of the three moons of Krynn affect the strength of magical spells. In the Ultima series of computer games, the phases of the two moons of Britannia were behind the secret of the moongates. In our own world the full moon is commonly associated with triggering the lycanthropic transformations of werewolves, as well as a general trend towards erratic behavior. Quite apart from that, in a fantasy setting the moon could be inhabited—perhaps the orbit is low enough for magical airships to traverse the distance between the world and the moon, leading to colonization and fantastic cities being erected. Alternately, a force of extraplanar invaders is using the moon as a beachhead for their invasion of your campaign world. Perhaps one of the moons is in fact a constructed citadel, home to a god or ancient power, watching over the world as guardian or tyrant (or both). What if the ancient citadel has been long abandoned, but contains magic artifacts of untold power waiting for someone to unravel the secrets of the lunar keep?

Other planets are possible too, though this depends on the assumptions of your setting. The default Points of Light setting for the current edition of D&D assumes a cosmology largely incompatible with a more traditional or realistic view of space, but there’s no reason your campaign world must be a part of the greater network of planes linked by the Astral Sea or other core assumptions. You might have other inhabited worlds in sailing distance of a flying ship, or you may decide that the world your player characters reside upon is the sole life-supporting world in the system, with others being hunks of lifeless rock. Still, such lifeless husks can be used to great effect in divinations, or in setting up some astronomical alignment—a time when great events or powerful magic may be possible due to the rare conjunction of all the planets for a short time.

Celestial events like comets or eclipses can be used in a similar fashion, of course. With enough preparation they can add a sense of urgency—“you must rescue the damsel before the eclipse”, perhaps, or “The demon-god will achieve apotheosis on the night the comet lights the sky”. Even if you as the DM maintain control and use the timing of the event as a narrative device, rather than a hard time limit on the adventure, it does contribute to the atmosphere and makes events feel more immediate and epic. By and large these kinds of events are more effective when planned ahead and the player characters are forewarned of the coming celestial circumstances, but an unexpected eclipse can lend tension and confusion to a scene as well.

The stars themselves are somewhat more distant, but can still be used for great effect. In our world, constellations are named for great heroes or deities, and the same can be true in your setting, allowing you an avenue to expand the myths and legends of your world. If your player characters manage to kill an evil deity, perhaps that deity’s constellation fades from the heavens, to be replaced by constellations representing one or more of your heroes. Other possibilities include the eldritch beings with whom certain warlocks form their pacts, or even strange invaders from other galaxies—though it feels like a science fiction premise, with spelljammers and other fantasy trappings it could be a novel approach to a campaign.

All in all there are as many possibilities as there are stars in the night sky. Spending a little bit of time thinking about what you could do with the heavens in your campaign can lead to a wide variety of new adventure sites, story hooks, or even full campaign plotlines.